Too Human
by theramblingfangirl
Summary: No matter what other sort of genealogy you might have in there, humanity, for such a fragile species, somehow always seems to be able to take precedence. Such as to scanners on ships orbiting black holes that will send unknown beings up on an elevator. They're always just that little bit too human. Always. And more often than not that means it can be far too easy for them to die


" _There are always aliens Alex, some of them never go away"_

He'd tried telling them the truth before. About their heritage and what they really were.

But that hadn't saved Alex. His great-grandson. He was supposed to have seen the stars, have journeyed with him in the TARDIS, once he had done exploring his own home planet of Earth with Lucie. It was his birthright.

But, by a lack of luck so sheer it was almost like the universe was being willfully spiteful, the boy had only inherited 7% of a Time Lord genome.

Not nearly enough to save him when he was shot by a Dalek.

That was the first time the Doctor had learned that, even in regards to the very genome itself, humanity tended to dominate.

And the Doctor couldn't cope with the loss that had resulted in.

He'd left after Alex's death. Left Susan, his little Arkytior, too mourn the loss of a son by herself all the while as she was forced to single-handedly try rear three more adoptive children and save the Earth's fledgling government from collapse.

He doesn't think she ever fully forgave him for that.

And he couldn't blame her. He was selfish plain and simple in his decision to go. He deserved every single bit of scorn she could muster and all the pain that it brought.

" _Protect my daughter, Doctor. Please, swear to me on your oath as a member of the Pyrodian chapter that you will not let any harm befall her."_

So when he met Bill Potts for the first time since she'd been just a little rowdy baby, he elected to not tell her about her mother. About a noble and strong woman who had served throughout the duration of the Time War itself as a member of the Gallifreyan War Council. A woman who had been admired for doing what had to be done to try save her people, up to and including going behind that very Council's back to lend him her aid.

He would still take her to see the stars and learn and explore the wonders of the universe for it was her birthright as much as Alex's...but no. He couldn't do it. He couldn't tell her any of that about her mother. He would not give her such a huge repute to have to live up to especially at such a young age, lest attempting to do so inadvertently cost her life.

As far as Bill would ever know, she was the daughter of a regular human woman who had lived and died on Earth.

So, as she referred to herself as human he would do the same. He wasn't technically lying in doing so, they were really her people too, after all, her father was most definitely human and she was at least human passing.

One heart and her psychic potential being so limited that she could only ever seem to be able to receive messages directly sent to her, such as those little old "memories", _messages_ in the form of quotes about travellers and vague lullabies from her mother.

If a non-human ageing rate became noticeably apparent he would deal with it then and only then. Perhaps that would be when he could supposedly "discover" her Gallifreyan heritage for the first time.

But for now at least she was human passing and so she would live a life that would fit a human. Bill would be different, he would be able to protect her this time, she would not ever end up like Alex!

" _Which one of you is human?!_

Then there was a lift coming. A lift filled with things that their new, very agitated blue acquaintance with a gun was clearly very afraid of.

It was coming, because it detected a human.

Or rather, someone with a genome similar enough to pass as one to a rudimentary scanner.

And Bill, oh brave Bill. Ever so anxious to help, had volunteered her apparent status when her friends started having guns pointed at them.

And then it was pointed at her.

His hearts stopped and he was in an instant trying to talk the blue man down, trying to save Bill. He could do it, he had to do it, he knew he could! He was always so good with his words and grandose speeches, quite a loveable and yet also humble charmer really, he could talk him down and save Bill and-

And then there was the sound of a gun going off.

And a hole in Bill's chest.

A hole, where her lone heart should have been.

" _Want to know the most reliable way to get rid of a Gallifreyan? You take out their hearts_."

At first, he couldn't think. His mind froze and he just couldn't process what he was actually seeing, memories of promising her to do the best he could for her safety replaying again and again and how he'd reassured himself that this venture would go alright and his mind focusing in on every other little thing that it possibly could instead of that.

Bill was standing. Bill had a hole in her chest. Bill was still looking at him. Bill had a hole in her chest. Bill's expression seemed shocked. Bill had a hole in her chest. Bill-

Wasn't standing anymore.

That was what it took for it to fully hit the Doctor what had happened, that was what it took for his feet to finally move to her side.

No! This couldn't be happening! Not again! Not again it can't be!

It won't be!

Dropping down, he grabbed her arm, and started trying to read her mind. If there was anything there, lingering thoughts or brainwaves or anything at all, then there was the smallest of chances that she could perhaps still be saved. He could take her back to the TARDIS, see if unlike poor, lost Alex she'd inherited enough of her mother to save her, see if, however unlikely it was, he could find a way to trigger a-

And then the elevator door opened, and the things that a blue man had shot Bill for stepped through, with a clear target in mind.

" _Don't you touch her, don't you lay a finger on her!"_

Whatever the beings planned to do, he wouldn't let them- whatever they tried they would not stop him from getting Bill back to the TARDIS! They would not stop him from trying to save her!

" _Stand. Away. Stand. Away. She. Will. Be. Repaired."_

...What? Could they? Did they have the technology to possibly do that?

" _Repaired_?"

The Doctor started stepping back, not sure whether to let that bit of hope he was starting to feel take route in his hearts quite yet.

Taking her to the TARDIS and saving her there was a long shot, a possibility built on too many ifs and maybes. But if these beings knew a way, a definite way to save Bill Potts then perhaps he should let them help...

" _Stand. Away_."

But he wanted clarification.

" _You can help her is that what you mean_?"

No response, but the beings silently placed her on a metallic stretcher that looked akin to something you would find in a hospital.

"Where are you going? What are you going to do with her?"

He'd already decided to let them take her, to let them try save her, to give Bill the best chance she had at pulling through, but the lack of answers was making him uneasy.

He didn't like the lack of answers.

" _Re-pair_ "

They really were a people of few words it seemed.

" _Don't try and stop them. They'll snap you in half_."

He ignored the blue man. It was him who'd gotten them into this horrific situation in the first place and he was not inclined to give him even a moment of his time right now.

After all, the Doctor had just realised, as the beings wheeled her away into the elevator, that there was something very important that he hand not asked them yet.

" _When do you bring her back_?"

If nothing else, he needed to know the answer to this question! Just this one!

" _We. Will. Not_."

And in barely just over a moment, the door to the elevator had shut.

They and Bill were long gone by the time he got to that door.

But they were also fools if he thought that they could keep him from getting back Bill Potts. They could save her, he would let them save her, but he would not let them keepher.

So with that, he reached out with his mind and put in all his effort to touch hers, painfully faint as it currently was. While all she could do was receive messages, that's all he needed right now.

He just needed to send out one psychic message, an instruction, or rather: a reassurance.

" _Wait for me_."

Because it would not be like Alex this time.

Because while Bill may have been too human to slip past the detector, he had faith in her. She would not be too human to survive this, the beings had stated, proven to him how she was still alive. That was Gallifreyan resilience and aversion to death right there. That was her mother saving her daughter once again.

And now it was his turn.

Because, once he got this door open, the Doctor was coming for Bill.


End file.
